Sermon for July 17th (Philip and the Ethiopian)

Today, I’d like to guide you through a story, it’s a story that some of you may know or have heard of, some of you may not know it at all, from the book of Acts. In most Bibles, the editors have titled the story, “Philip and the Ethiopian”. Like many stories in the Bible, it’s an easy story to read through without being too shocked. But after today, my prayer is that you never read this story again without getting goosebumps at how God’s works in this world—using ordinary people to do extraordinary things and pouring mercy over those who deserve it the least. A lot of people say refers to events in their life as “lucky” or “fate” or as “accidents”. Is the story about Philip and the Ethiopian about accidents or something more?

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” An angel of the Lord said to Philip . . . now who is Philip? Do you know who he is? To be honest, I never really knew until this last week. I mean, I knew the name, but I didn’t understand who he really was. I thought that he was one of the apostles, I guess, even though I never really gave it much thought. I just figured that it was a story about someome doing something important so it MUST have been one of the apostles . . . but I was wrong.

Do you know who Philip was? He was not one of the twelve apostles. The first time Philip is mentioned is in Acts chapter 6, “In those days when the number of disciples were increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve (that’s the twelve disciples) gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip . . . .” That’s him. Also Philip.

Philip wasn’t an apostle. He was one of these seven men asked to do the detail work, the “daily distribution of food” and taking care of the Greek widows so that the twelve apostles could do their prayers and preaching. How interesting then that the book of Acts seems to take a little tangent at this point from constantly following the likes of Peter and Paul and chooses to focus first on Stephen and now, in chapter eight, on this Philip.

This group of seven, including most famously Stephen and Philip, are usually referred to as deacons. The word deacon comes from the Greek word diakonos meaning servant or assistant. They weren’t the stars of the show, in other words, or at least not like “The Twelve”. They were called in specifically to do the work that the apostles were too busy to do. Isn’t it interesting though how God used these seven who were called in for supporting roles to further the kingdom of God? “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” Of all the people God could have sent, why did God choose Philip?

And of all times to leave, why now? Because if you didn’t realize it, this wasn’t the first time God used Philip to do his work. At the beginning of chapter 8, we hear that Philip went to Samaria and proclaimed Christ there, bringing to him large crowds in a type of revivalisic healing service complete with miracles of healing and deliverance. This town of Samaria had so fully become overrun by the Holy Spirit that the apostles in Jerusalem had sent Peter and John to check out what was happening.

And so what does God have Philip do? Leave town of course. Of course. And of the two roads to take to Gaza, the one well-traveled with multiple people or the desert road with few inhabitants, God sent Philip, the evangelistic powerhouse, away from the crowds, away from the revival and into the wilderness for God only knows what reason. It’s easy to miss these details, isn’t it? But once you start noticing who Philip is and where he is going and what he’s coming from, it’s like God is setting us up for a big punch line.

So, on this desert road with nobody else on it, Philip runs across someone. “On his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home, was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.” There are two interesting aspects of this stranger Philip runs across. He is an Ethiopian and he is a eunuch.

When Jesus had ascended into heaven, he gave the twelve apostles this promise, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. In all Judea and Samaria and to all the ends of the Earth.” So far in Acts, the apostles have witnessed in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea. As I mentioned earlier, Philip had led a revival in Samaria and now God sends him out into the desert to the edge of the wilderness and he finds himself face to face with none other than a representative from “all the ends of the earth.” Now, Ethiopia isn’t really that far from Jerusalem, at least by today’s standards, but it is over 1000 miles. Back in the days of horses and chariots, that’s gonna take some time. My point is that while Ethiopia isn’t “the ends of the earth” literally, you have to start somewhere and it appears that this is exactly the opportunity God sends to begin a much larger mission for the church.

But even more interestingly, this Ethiopian is a eunuch. A eunuch, in biblical times, would have been a man who had been castrated. Usually, men were made eunuchs because they were servants of powerful women or servants of powerful families. This particular eunuch was an important servant of the Queen of Ethiopia. Castration was just a precaution to keep illegitimate children from popping up. But, in Judaism, being a eunuch meant something much more than simply birth control. According to Deuteronomy 23:1, “No one who has been emasculated (another word for castrated) by crusing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.” In other words, you could be a Jewish eunuch, but you would not be allowed to worship in the temple. You were cut off from the community and considered unclean.

The kingdom of God is like Philip, the deacon, being pulled out of the Samaritan revival and being sent by God onto a deserted desert road where he runs into a man from the ends of the earth who is cut off from the Jewish community because he is a eunuch, begin asked, as a complete stranger, to come and help this man interpret the Word of God. And what is this Ethiopian eunuch reading? Well, that’s interesting as well.

Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” the eunuch said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendents? For his life was taken from the earth.”

Now, you may say, what’s the big deal, but let me point out to you that of all the scrolls that this Ethiopian could have been reading, I find it very interesting that this is what he was reading at this particular time. This reading from Isaiah isn’t about some complex commandment in Leviticus or a confusing symbolic dream such as we see in the book of Daniel. This was a Messianic prophesy, one of four sections in Isaiah that deal with what scholars call “the suffering servant”. At the time, this would have been a passage looked at with hope by the Jews as they awaited the coming Messiah.

“The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip, began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” Why this text? Why that day? Just a happy accident? You can imagine how Philip must have started by showing how this sheep to be slaughtered, according to Isaiah, was Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who promised to take away the sins of the world. He was the sacrificial lamb. He did not open his mouth the text says. He was deprived of justice it says. Philip must have pointed to Jesus’ trial before Herod and Pilate where again and again it was said that they could find no case against him and yet, when the passage talked about this innocent man’s life being taken from the earth, Philip could speak of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. How Jesus, the lamb of God, died before his accusers and then was raised to give the forgiveness of sins to all those who believed in him.

And then, as they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” Of course! In the middle of the desert, they just happened to come across some water! Just another lucky break I guess! Or should we say, the kingdom of God is like a man riding a chariot through the desert being preached to about the good news of Jesus Christ by a complete stranger and then coming across water so that he could be baptized?

What about all of you this morning? How many of you feel like you don’t belong? Maybe you’re not from Ethiopia, but you’ve moved here from far away and you have never felt like you “fit in” with all the old names and old families. You’re not Lutheran. You’re family isn’t even Christian. You don’t know why you’ve come but you are here. How many of you feel “unclean” and “unworthy”? Maybe you’re not a eunuch, but according to God’s laws, you shouldn’t be welcome in this church or anywhere else for that matter—not after what you’ve done or thought or felt. Do you realize that you aren’t here by mistake? It was no accident? This morning, this reading, this church, this feeling, this sermon? It’s not lucky you are here—that’s what the kingdom of God is like! And yes, here’s water! What’s to keep you from being baptized if you haven’t been? Right here, this morning, just raise your hand and come up! What is going to happen today? Where will God take you this afternoon? What does God have planned? What will the kingdom of God be like for you?